About customer payment methods

A payment method is available by default if it has been configured as follows in the Payment methods (CA204000) window:

• The payment method is active or the Active check box is selected.
• The payment method is based on the Cash means of payment.
• The payment method is marked for use in Customer ledger or the Use in customers check box is selected.
• The payment method does not require an account number or the Require account number check box is cleared on the Settings for customer ledger tab.

When you create a new customer account, the system automatically adds these default payment methods to the account.
This is done because these payment methods can be used without any customer-specific details being specified.
That is, for these payment methods, you generally do not need to use the Customer payment methods (AR303010) window to specify a customer-specific instance of the payment method.
You can start recording customer documents by using the available payment methods.

You set up customer payment methods by using the Customer payment methods (AR303010) window. You may need to create a customer payment method in the following cases:

• If you want to modify the settings of available by default payment method. For example, you might decide to record a cash payment from a particular customer on another cash account.

You can see all payment methods used by a customer on the Payment methods tab of the Customers (AR303000) window. This tab displays both payment methods that are available by default (for those payment methods, the Override check box is cleared) and customer payment methods (for those methods, the Override check box is selected).

All active payment methods (those listed on this tab) can be used for payments by this customer. Inactive methods do not appear on the list of the customer's payment methods.

Also, on the Payment methods tab, you can create a new customer payment method by clicking Add payment method, and view or edit the details of an existing customer payment method by selecting the method and clicking View payment method.

You can specify the default payment method for the particular customer by selecting the Is default check box for the selected payment method on the Payment methods tab in the Customers (AR303000) window.

You can specify a default payment method for a customer class. Then when you create a new customer account and associate it with this customer class, the system does one of the following:

• If the payment method is generic (it is already present in the customer account), the system marks it as the default one.
• If this payment method requires any specific information, you have to provide this information to be able to save the new customer account.

After the new customer account is successfully added, the payment method is listed on the Payment methods tab in the Customers (AR303000) window for this customer and marked as the default method.

When you enter customer payments in the Customer ledger workspace, you should first select the customer.
Once you do, certain elements on the window are filled in with the settings associated with the selected customer account and its default location and default payment method.

The default payment method provides the identifier of the cash account. If you select a payment method other than the default one, the identifier of the cash account will change to the one associated with the selected payment method.
The default payment method and the cash account associated with it can be overridden on customer payments.

If the Inventory module is enabled in your system, you can create a new customer payment method on the fly as you enter a sales order for the customer. On-the-fly creation mostly is used for customer payment methods that represents the credit or debit card.

You can delete customer payment methods that are no longer needed by using the Delete button in the toolbar of the Customer payment methods (AR303010) window.